A Familiar Infotainment System
Standard on the base Sonata SE is a six-speaker stereo with AM/FM, SiriusXM, CD, MP3, USB and auxiliary input. It’s iPod- and iPhone-compatible with voice commands. You even get 600MB of on-board storage for copying music files to. At the heart of the base radio is an ARM processor clocked at 333MHz, though more specific information about the exact SoC being used isn't available.
Stepping up to the Sport and higher trim levels adds a 5-inch LCD touchscreen, Blue Link telematics and a back-up camera. The SoC doesn't change, though. The 5-inch display is fairly low-resolution, but it does make navigating flash drives loaded with music easier to manage.
Check the tech package option and your infotainment system gets upgraded to the same technology that comes standard on the Hyundai Genesis sedan. We delved deeply into the internal hardware in 2015 Hyundai Genesis Sedan: Android, Atom, and More, but didn’t get to spend much time with the infotainment system until now.
As a refresher, it's powered by a custom-ordered Freescale i.MX53 SoC clocked at 1.1GHz. The i.MX53 is an evolution of the i.MX51 used by Ford SYNC and the older Kia UVO solution. The chip sports a single ARM Cortex-A9 core with Imageon Z460 graphics and an Android-based operating system that’s skinned to match Hyundai’s other infotainment systems.
Hyundai dubs the system in the Genesis sedan AVN 4.5, and AVN 4.0 on the new Sonata. The only difference between them is that the Genesis has more buttons for music sources, while the Sonata relies more on its touchscreen interface. As with the Genesis sedan, the 8-inch screen has a typical resolution of 800x480, which is sufficiently detailed from the driver’s seat.
This particular infotainment system features enhanced Blue Link capabilities that include destination search, POI Web search and download powered by Google. There’s even remote start through an iOS or Android smartphone application, automatic collision notification, enhanced roadside assistance and maintenance reminder services. Drivers who are concerned with their impact on fuel economy can access an information display that graphs detailed metrics for acceleration, deceleration, speed distribution and idle time.
Navigation is standard Hyundai fare, with flat maps that are adequate for daily driving, but not as detailed as the 3D maps available from competitors. Hyundai does add a split-screen view mode to put navigation and music functions side-by-side, which is a nice addition.
The infotainment system also supports Wi-Fi network connectivity for data-compatible applications. Unfortunately, there weren’t any Wi-Fi capable apps available for us to play with.